О. М. Ільченко Англійська мова для науковців

Exercise 5. Pluralize the following words:

radius, crisis, antenna, appendix, criterion, stimulus, encyclopedia, prognosis, sanatorium, axis, aircraft, medium, matrix, nebula, phasis, optimum, syllabus, supernova, synthesis, spectrum, thesis, equipment, maximum, hypothesis, equilibrium, millennium, oasis, curriculum, phenomenon, analysis.

Exercise 6. Translate the following sentences.

1.There are infinitely many bases to choose from.

2.You may first wish to try a few examples to illustrate that formula.

3.There are many interesting results concerning matrices.

4.Unfortunately, formulas like the ones above do not come easily.

5.There did not remain any questions.

6.This is the least acceptable variant.

7.The latter procedure is much more complicated than the former one.

8.There are a lot of differences among languages.

9.Elevator makers believe that their cars can carry passengers up to at least 180 floors.

10.We do not have enough information at present to offer sound answers to these questions.

11.They have sufficient information from which to draw a conclusion.

12.The reaction accelerated fivefold.

13.These features are also important in a wide variety of applications.

Text B. Scientific prefixes

Let's meet zetta, yotta, zepto and yocto. They are not fundamental particles, they are prefixes on the scientific scale of quantities denoting, respectively, a billion trillions, a trillion trillions, a billionth of a trillionth, respectively — укр. вiдповiдно and a trillionth of a trillionth. Nobody has found much practical use for them yet, but they exist if you need them, according to decisions of the Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures, the international body that meets every four years to govern the realm of scientific units.

By learning the prefixes you will understand the meaning of words.

Exercise 8. Try to guess the meaning of the following words. If necessary, consult the dictionary.

contradict, uniform, combine, decade, antecedent, byproduct, international, foresee, impossible, ambivalent, unknown, collaborate, transportation, disorder, monologue, unilateral, bimonthly, semiannual, microscope, subterranean, cooperate, unusual, monopoly, synthesis, bicycle, antipathy, polyglot, reaffirm, demigod, triangle, intermediate, predict, dislike, overestimate, multimillionaire, illegal, infinity, misinform, bilateral, retrospect, preview, hemisphere, outplay, undervalue.

Exercise 9. Read the. text concentrating on «quantity» words. Render it into Ukrainian.

Although the beginning of «electronics» is usually dated around the 1920s, this represents a myopic view of technology. We can now see that the telegraph and the telephone are the first two landmarks of the electronic age. After Alexander Graham Bell had sent his voice from one room to another in 1876, society could never be the same again.

Electron, this invisible, ubiquitous, weightless object has given us power over nature of which our ancestors never dreamed. Until the closing years of the nineteenth century, people used electricity without knowing what it was. One of the most dramatic events was the invention of the X-ray tube — the ancestor of vacuum ubiquitous

— existing tubes which followed. X-rays were discovered in 1895 — the electron or being everywhere itself just one year later. It was then realized that an electric current consists of myriads of these submicroscopic particles, each carrying a minute negative charge. Until 1948, electronics was almost synonymous with the vacuum tube. By the late 1940's, the vacuum tube had shrunk from the object as large as an electric bulb, to a cylinder not much

bigger than a man's thumb. Then three scientists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the transistor and we moved from the Paleoelectronic to the Neoelectronic Age. But a really efficient, reliable and universal communications system can be achieved only with the aid of satellites. With the improvement of communications the role of cities as meeting places and centers of social interaction will become obsolete, as people will be able to meet face to face (individually or in groups) without even leaving their homes.

Exercise 10. Choose the correct word and fill in the blanks.

1. Your work shows considerable __ .

2. I want to __ my German.

3. Your English if getting better, but there is still room for __ .

5.The fall in prices will be :__ to our business.

6.He is most likely __ .

9.A specialist in technology is called ____.

10.We use the latest ____.

Exercise 11. Read the passage and answer the questions about it.

When colonists from Europe first arrived in America, they had to decide what to preserve of their cultural heritage, and what to discard. They also had to decide upon a means to preserve and build upon their legacy. Their answer was the town school. Within 30' years of the founding of the first settlement in Massachusetts (1620), all towns were required to hire a schoolmaster to teach reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as religion; larger towns were required to establish grammar schools to prepare children for the university. In 1787 the Continental Congress required every new township in the Northwest Territory to preserve one plot and land for public schools.

At the university level, Harvard (Massachusetts) was founded in 1636, and William and Mary (Virginia) in 1693. By 1776, on the eve of its revolution, America had 14 colleges in the new country and another score were founded by 1800. By that time schooling meant not only preserving parts of the classical education, but also teaching skills necessary to build a new North American Nation. Americans freely borrowed from English, French and German precedents.

1.Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

a.European colonists in America

b.American educational system

c.Grammar schools and universities

d.The first steps of American education

6.This machinery is obsolete.

a.new

b.universal

c.outdated

d.good

7.The theory has myriads of followers.

a.some

b.a great number of

c.a plenty of

d.few

8.We were faced with a lot of problems.

a.found

b.renewed

c.resolved

d.encountered

9.Several approaches have emerged in recent years.

a.appeared

b.lost importance

c.formed

d.disappeared

10.They made a minute improvement.

a.instant

b.very small

c.considerable

d.very important

11.We have carried out several experiments.

a.the number of

b.a lot of

c.few

d.a number of

12.At present we do not have enough information.

a.sufficient

b.pertinent

c.updated

d.important

13.Electron is a ubiquitous object.

a.valuable

b.infinitesimal

c.omnipresent

d.weightless

14.Computer is a reliable tool.

a.dependable

b.sophisticated

c.expensive

d.common

15.Water is the most abundant resource on the Earth, and one of the most important.

a.rare

b.useful

c.significant

d.plentiful

16.The article concerns huge woodland areas.

a.concluded by

b.denies

c.provides

d.regards

17.A second, more rigorous course may be offered as an elective.

a.the other

b.another

c.the second

d.other

18.A telephone is an indispensable piece of equipment in any office.

a.beneficial

b.compatible

c.very reliable

d.extremely important

19.It was one of the most dramatic events.

a.usual

b.exciting

c.sad

d.obvious

Noteworthy

The name «quark» was coined by Irish poet and novelist James Joyce in the 1930s, and adopted by quantum physicist Murray Gell-Mann in 1964. Gell-Mann took it from the novel «Finnegan's Wake» in which a flock of seaswans sings this song to one of the characters:

«Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he hasn't got much of a bark

And sure any he has it's all beside the mark».

Although «quark» had no relevance to physics, it was probably as good a name as any for a mysterious building block of matter.

Chapter 3

Focus on:

Science and Society Using

Graphics

Grammar: System of Tenses (Review)

Text A. Read the text and be ready to answer the questions that follow.

competitive markets,

countries prosper. That prosperity then enables higher investments in R&D reguired for economic development. The very dynamics of R&D institutions is changing. Universities create hybrid academic-industrial centers, often with partial goverment funding, to accelerate the transfer of scientific results to commercial applications.

1.What is a key factor in preserving economy's competitiveness?

2.What is meant by disturbing trends in human resources?

3.Why is it necessary to maintain intellectual capital?

4.What is a brain drain?

5.What are the new forms of linkages between science and industry?